This invention relates to a method and apparatus for attaching a sensor assembly within a control unit that is used to deploy a safety restraint device.
Electronic control units for deploying safety restraint devices include a plurality of sensors and a printed circuit board, which interact with each other to control deployment of the safety restraint device under appropriate vehicle crash conditions. Traditionally, a single printed circuit board is used to support all of the sensors. Thus, the lateral and vertical acceleration sensors as well as the rollover sensors are all mounted to the same circuit board.
This mounting configuration has several disadvantages. First, the size of the circuit board must be large enough to accommodate all of the sensors, in addition to their associated electronics. This takes up a significant amount of packaging space. Another disadvantage is that this mounting configuration has a tendency to resonate at lower frequencies. This resonation can adversely affect sensor signals, resulting in measurement and signal conversion inaccuracies.
Thus, it is desirable to have a control unit and sensor assembly that allows the size of the printed circuit board to be decreased to provide a more compact unit, and which further eliminates inaccuracies caused by vibrations, as well as overcoming the other above mentioned deficiencies with the prior art.